Different strokes…

I had a reflexology appointment recently and was talking with the massage therapist afterward. I had asked her about an area on the bottom of my left foot that can get a little crampy from time to time. She told me what it related to but that it could mean different things.

Of course it can mean different things! Sometimes I don’t appreciate that answer, but it’s truly the only one there is. There is no one size fits all for anything. Clothes, medicines, diets, exercise programs, hair styles, philosophies, entertainment, etc. Life is a smorgasbord with enough selection for everyone, and we have to ultimately figure out what’s going to work for us.

I assumed that my late-in-the-day appointment was probably her last because we kept talking! The conversation quickly turned to our energy backgrounds involving a mention of meditation and how, for the both of us, it had never been our thing.

I had read books about meditation decades ago, and, for the life of me, could not create the scenarios intended by the authors. See yourself in the middle of a beautiful field. Nope! It was very frustrating, and I had always assumed that I was the problem. It took a long, long time for me to realize that I just didn’t meditate that way.

We can become very discouraged when someone else’s recipe for success isn’t successful for us, especially when that someone is a well-known leader in a specific field – and has tons of positive testimonials to boot! We think that we must be doing something wrong rather than recognize that a certain program just might not be right for us.

Meditation has many purposes, and I had originally approached it as a way to expand my awareness into higher realms. Funnily enough, I have come to understand that every time I get a feeling about something or a flash of insight – that is a kind of meditating. Instead of getting quiet and centered with a breathing technique to set the stage for such an experience, however, it can happen on its own when I am contemplating something.

We need to stop comparing ourselves to an ideal set by someone else. From time to time, something really might work for us, and that’s great, but different strokes for different folks. Long story long…I’ve always meditated but didn’t know it.